Quiet Stories is an Auckland based video game developer, dedicated to telling interactive stories and tackling New Zealand's youth mental health problem. However there is one thing we care about more than making games, and that's playing games! Every week on this blog we share podcasts, videos and articles where we celebrate, analyse and interview other incredibly talented developers in the industry. So for an abundance of gaming content check out Quiet Stories on Twitter (OurQuietStories) or on YouTube and Facebook (Quiet Stories).

Goombastomp’s 2018 Game of the Year Contenders (Mid-Year)

Last week we announced Quiet Stories well overdue 2017 Game of the Year list. This week in collaboration with Goombastomp we’re sharing the best games of 2018 so far, the contenders for this years Game of the Year title. Click here to check out the full list.

We threw in our vote for Monster Hunter: World, which we talked about at length on the Fist Fight podcast. This is what we had to say about it.

“Monster Hunter: World may not be the very best game of the year so far, but it deserves recognition. We’re only half way through the year, yet January seems like a lifetime ago. It was a time where everyone in the world was sinking crazy hours into a JRPG/MMO. A period where we slaved away, grinded and slaughtered majestic creatures for a fancy pair of leggings. Monster Hunter: World didn’t have the best story, and yes it could be a bit of a slog at times, but it’s nailed the premise of games as a service, possibly even better than Destiny has.

It might not be my game of the year, but I’ll never forget the night I spent an hour desperately facing off against a dragon of gargantuan size, dodging tirelessly, whittled down to my last drop of health. Then out of nowhere three other players swooped in and bombarded the dragon with arrows, explosions, and slashes. We fought together, claimed our rewards and then went our separate ways. Despite never seeing them again, we shared that victory.”